Pope John Paul II took a bold step on March 12, 2000 when he asked God for forgiveness of the past sins of the Roman Catholic Church. During a Lent mass homily, the Pope said ”We cannot not recognize the betrayal of the Gospel committed by some of our brothers, especially in the second millennium. Recognizing the deviations of the …
When my Protestant friends bring up the horrible persecution Bloody Mary inflicted on Protestants during her reign in England, I remind them of situations such as what took place in Perth, Scotland (pictured here). On March 11, 1559 Protestants burned the Catholic churches in Perth (once the capital of Scotland) and told the priests and friars they were not allowed …
The author of the most beloved hymn “Amazing Grace” was converted to Christianity on March 10, 1748. John Newton later said of his acceptance of Christ: “That 10th of March is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never allowed it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day the Lord came from …
“His Eye in on the Sparrow” and “God Will Take Care of You” are just two of the hymns written by Civilla Durfee Martin who died on March 9, 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia. She and her husband wrote several hymns but her most famous one (His Eye is on the Sparrow) was the marquee song by jazz great Ethel Waters …
Hugo Black, a former US Senator from Alabama, was appointed to the US Supreme Court by Franklin Roosevelt and handed down the decision of the Supreme Court on March 8, 1948 saying it was illegal to teach religious education in public schools. Known as the McCollum v. Board of Education decision, the Court said it was a violation of the …
One of the great giants of church theology and political theology was Thomas Aquinas who died on March 7, 1274. His book Summa Theologia is a masterpiece of understanding many theological ideas in one spot and has had a tremendous impact on Western thinkers. He has a Catholic college named in his honor located in California which you can see …
Father Issac Hecker had a vision that a very Protestant United States could be converted to Catholicism with a concerted evangelical effort. He gathered with three other Catholic converts and they formed the Missionary Society of St. Paul known as the Paulists when they first met on March 6, 1858 and kicked in efforts a few months later.
Protestant missionaries began a concerted effort to spread Christianity to the far east and the London Missionary Society played a major role. Henry Nott was one of those missionaries and he landed with a large party in Tahiti on March 5, 1797. Almost everyone else would desert but Nott stayed and that’s why you get to be on a stamp.
Until the 20th amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1933, the inauguration of the President of the United States was March 4th and not January 20th as it is today. When Zachary Taylor became president on March 4, 1849, inauguration day fell on a Sunday and Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Lord’s day. The tradition stuck …
Queen Cunegunda was married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and when Henry died, instead of fighting for power to rule the empire, she went into a convent and lived a peaceful servant’s life until her death on March 3, 1033. She and Henry commissioned the building of the cathedral at Bamberg, Germany where they are buried.
